[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 18332-18334]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER'S FAILURE TO CONFRONT BACKPAGE.COM

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, December 9, 2013

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I submit a letter I sent last week to Attorney 
General Eric Holder, my fourth this year on the topic (I also submit 
the previous four), pressing him and the Department of Justice to 
prioritize combatting sex trafficking on the Internet. I specifically 
highlighted the Web site Backpage.com, which time and again has been 
proven to be a conduit for the buying and selling of human beings, 
including minors.
  My letter was prompted by a Washington Post article, which I also 
submit for the Record, which details the exploitation of a young local 
girl on Backpage.com.
  Attorney General Holder has failed to shut down or even publicly 
shame Backpage.com, one of the major vehicles for trafficking in this 
country. Enough is enough. I am not going to drop this issue until 
every mother and father in this nation has the peace of mind that our 
government is doing everything it can to confront this criminal 
enterprise. Backpage.com is profiting from the sexual exploitation of 
minors. This must not be permitted to continue.

                                                 December 6, 2013.
     Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.,
     Attorney General, Department of Justice,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Attorney General Holder: The lead article in the Metro 
     section of today's Washington Post provided yet another sad 
     account of a young girl being sexually trafficked on the Web 
     site Backpage.com. What makes it even more tragic is that the 
     alleged pimp is a D.C. police officer. Enclosed is a copy of 
     the article. I marked the reference to Backpage.com.
       For five years, I have been asking you and your department 
     to deal with this problem. You have given a lot of speeches, 
     but have you ever even publicly called out Backpage.com for 
     its critical role in facilitating sex trafficking?
       When are you and your department going to get serious about 
     solving this problem? How many more young girls are going to 
     become victims before the department deals with this?
       From now on, I'm going to hold you personally accountable 
     for each victim trafficked on that Web site--each someone's 
     daughter, sister, or mother. I'm asking you--not as attorney 
     general but as a father--to use your remaining time in office 
     to find a way to end Backpage.com's trafficking of young 
     girls and women.
       Best wishes,
           Sincerely,
                                                    Frank R. Wolf,
                                               Member of Congress.
                                  ____
                                  

                [From the Washington Post, Dec. 6, 2013]

                      Police Search Officer's Home

         (By Peter Hermann, Ann Marimow and Clarence Williams)

       Authorities are investigating whether a veteran D.C. police 
     officer was running a prostitution ring out of his Southeast 
     Washington apartment where they found a 16-year-old girl who 
     had been reported missing, according to documents unsealed in 
     federal court.
       The officer, who has been on the force for 24 years, had 
     not been arrested as of Thursday evening, but he was put on 
     paid administrative leave as police continued their 
     investigation. The teenager told police that the officer took 
     nude photos of her and arranged for her to have sex for 
     money, the court papers say.
       News of the allegation broke publicly as another D.C. 
     police officer was in U.S. District Court facing a federal 
     charge of producing child pornography: Marc L. Washington, 
     32, was arrested Monday on allegations that he took pictures 
     of a semi-nude 15-year-old who had run away from home.
       Authorities said it does not appear that the cases are 
     related, but the specter of having two officers from the 7th 
     District station house in Southeast investigated on crimes 
     linked to sexual abuse of minors has shaken the 4,000-member 
     department. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the 
     department ``is very concerned about the recent allegations 
     of egregious conduct.''
       Lanier acknowledged that the cases could make the force 
     look bad, but she said that ``misguided actions of a few in 
     no, way reflects on the professionalism, dedication and 
     integrity of the department.''
       The Washington Post is not naming the 47-year-old officer 
     because he has not been charged with a crime and was not 
     identified in the search warrant application, filed in U.S. 
     District Court. Efforts to reach him were not successful.
       It was unclear how investigators came to focus on the 
     officer and the apartment on Stanton Road. The court 
     documents state only that detectives investigating a family's 
     report of a missing 16-year-old girl learned that she might 
     be at the officer's residence.
       Police went to the apartment Tuesday night and the officer 
     answered the door after repeated knocks, according to court 
     papers. He let them in, and they reported that they 
     immediately smelled marijuana. Detectives were told that two 
     females were in a bedroom; one was the missing teen, the 
     court documents stated, and the other was an 18-year-old.
       Officers stayed at the apartment through the night and most 
     of Wednesday, and after getting a search warrant, they 
     confiscated nine pairs of shoes, one bra, two boxes of 
     condoms, computers and cellphones. The court documents stated 
     that they also took a mirror with names written on it and 
     that the 16-year-old told police that the names were of women 
     who had worked as prostitutes.
       A high-ranking D.C. police official said authorities were 
     sorting through conflicting statements and trying to 
     determine precisely what was happening in the apartment. How 
     the officer met the girl was not described in documents made 
     public thus far.
       According to court documents, the girl told police that she 
     had gone to the officer's apartment at least twice and that 
     the officer took nude photos of her wearing sparkly, high-
     heeled shoes and showed them to a potential customer. The man 
     liked the photos and was scheduled to meet her and pay $80 
     for sex, the girl told police. Of that, she said, $20 was to 
     go to the officer. The girl said that the officer was to pay 
     for her hairstyle, shoes and new clothes and that her working 
     name would be ``Juicy.'' It was not clear whether the girl 
     met the customer.
       The girl said that six other women worked out of the 
     apartment and that advertisements were posted on the Internet 
     site backpage.com, the documents said.
       In U.S. District Court on Thursday, authorities were 
     dealing with the separate case involving Marc Washington. 
     Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola said he wanted to release 
     the officer to stay with his father in Waldorf, Md., and be 
     put on electronic monitoring. But Facciola issued a 24-hour 
     stay on the order to give prosecutors a chance to appeal.
       ``It is despicable for anyone to do this,'' Facciola said 
     of the alleged conduct. ``For a police officer to do this is 
     beyond anyone's imagination.''
       But with Washington's gun and badge no longer in his 
     possession, the judge said it ``reduces substantially'' the 
     possibility of the officer being able to abuse his previous 
     position of authority. The arresting officer told the judge 
     that Washington's police powers had been revoked and that he 
     was in the process of being suspended without pay.
       The officer's attorney, Michelle Peterson, told the judge 
     that her client ``understands the serious nature of the 
     charges, but they are just that--charges.''
       Assistant U.S. Attorney Ari Redbord said that investigators 
     recovered dozens of photos from Washington's camera, 
     including images of two semi-nude females who appeared to be 
     minors, and that they think there may be other victims.
       ``He committed this crime on duty, in uniform and with a 
     firearm,'' Redbord said in arguing for Washington to remain 
     in custody. ``He picked the most vulnerable of victims in our 
     community.''
                                  ____

                                                 October 23, 2013.
     Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.,
     Attorney General, Department of Justice,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Attorney General Holder: I write to share with you a 
     letter I sent today to President Obama urging that either he 
     or

[[Page 18333]]

     you make a major policy address in the next 30 days publicly 
     calling out Web sites like Backpage.com, which time and again 
     feature prominently in court cases involving the horrific 
     sexual exploitation of American children. This issue is as 
     timely as it has ever been given a recent Washington Post 
     article which revealed that Northern Virginia gangs have 
     concluded that trafficking young girls is actually more 
     profitable than traditional criminal enterprises like drugs 
     or weapons sales--in part because prostituted minors can be 
     bought and sold multiple times. Not surprisingly the gangs 
     use the Web to advertise services.
       As you know, this is an issue about which I have long been 
     deeply troubled. I had a productive meeting with several 
     Department of Justice employees today regarding the most 
     effective means by which to tackle this insidious criminal 
     activity.
       I recognize there are no easy answers, but as I stated in 
     my letter to the president, I believe it is critical that we 
     embrace a holistic approach, which includes public education, 
     demand reduction and, importantly as it relates to 
     Backpage.com, public shame.
       Best wishes,
           Sincerely,
                                                    Frank R. Wolf,
     Member of Congress.
                                  ____

                                                    July 30, 2013.
     Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.,
     Attorney General, Department of Justice,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Attorney General Holder: Many Americans were 
     undoubtedly heartened to learn yesterday that authorities 
     rescued 105 children from 76 different cities across this 
     nation who had been forced into prostitution, and arrested 
     150 pimps who were intimately involved in the exploitation of 
     these minors--children ranging in age from 13 to 17. But I 
     suspect that just as many Americans were shocked to learn of 
     the scope and reach of human trafficking in our own back 
     yard. For under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act any 
     minor used in a commercial sex act is a victim of human 
     trafficking.
       I applaud the impressive work of the FBI; its local, state, 
     and federal law enforcement partners, including the Fairfax 
     County Police Department and the Loudoun County Sheriff's 
     Office, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
     Children (NCMEC). As you know, I have long supported efforts 
     locally and in the annual Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) 
     appropriations bill to elevate this issue as a law 
     enforcement priority. In fact the CJS bill which recently 
     passed the House Appropriations Committee included language 
     instructing U.S. Attorneys to maintain their human 
     trafficking task forces and undertake proactive 
     investigations of persons or entities facilitating 
     trafficking in persons through the use of classified 
     advertising on the Internet. The bill also directs the U.S. 
     Attorney General to submit a comprehensive report on all DOJ 
     anti-trafficking activities, including legislative proposals 
     that may advance any efforts, no later than 60 days after the 
     bill is signed into law.
       While the details of this campaign, Operation Cross 
     Country, are still emerging, not unsurprising, Backpage.com 
     featured prominently in the announcement of the crackdown. In 
     fact, a CNN story this morning cited the assistant director 
     of the FBI's criminal investigative division, as saying, 
     ``This seventh iteration of Operation Cross Country also was 
     the most successful, with a 30% to 40% increase in 
     `identifying both victims and pimps' compared with previous 
     operations.'' The story continued, ``He credited the success 
     in part to an expansion of the probe to websites such as 
     www.backpage
.com, which he called a forum `where pimps and exploiters 
     gather.'''
       An NBC news story following the raid reported, ``Search for 
     `Backpage.com' on the FBI's main website and up pops eight 
     whole pages of press releases and public announcements naming 
     the classified advertising site as a tool for sex criminals, 
     particularly those selling children, sex and prostitution.'' 
     Case after case shows that as long as web sites like 
     Backpage.com operate with impunity, impervious to public 
     shame, law enforcement will simply be playing catch up.
       In that vein, just last week, an overwhelming majority of 
     state and territorial attorneys general sent a letter to the 
     chair and ranking members of the U.S. Senate Committee on 
     Commerce, Science, and Transportation and House Committee on 
     Energy and Commerce. The letter indicated that ``Federal 
     enforcement alone has proven insufficient to stem the growth 
     of internet-facilitated child sex trafficking,'' and pleaded 
     that, ``Those on the front lines of the battle against the 
     sexual exploitation of children---state and local law 
     enforcement---must be granted the authority to investigate 
     and prosecute those who facilitate these horrible crimes.''
       I couldn't agree more, which is why in April 2012, well 
     over a year ago, I wrote you a letter making clear that 
     classified Internet advertising was the latest front in the 
     battle against sexual exploitation and trafficking of minors, 
     Specifically I wrote, ``. . . if DOJ is of the mind that 
     there are insufficient laws on the books to prosecute this 
     activity, I respectfully request a broader, legal analysis 
     and recommendations to Congress of legislative initiatives 
     that may be undertaken to fully equip law enforcement to 
     tackle this problem.'' This was the first of several letters 
     I've written on the topic.
       On June 8 2012, I wrote, ``. . . I continue to believe that 
     unless there is the very real prospect of criminal liability 
     that Backpage.com will fail to change . . . I recognize that 
     these are complex legal questions but surely we can agree 
     that this is not a complex issue. Children ought not to be 
     bought and sold online. Those who facilitate and enable this 
     practice should have to face consequences. I welcome the best 
     legal analysis the Department can provide in how to ensure 
     that this happens.''
       And again, on March 27, 2013 I wrote you, this time 
     including a series of recommendations provided by NCMEC that 
     Backpage
     .com and similar Web sites used for trafficking could 
     voluntarily adopt to reduce the sexual exploitation of 
     children online. I urged you, as the nation's chief law 
     enforcement officer, to press Backpage.com to immediately 
     adopt these practices and said that if they fail to do so you 
     should ``. . . take legal action against Backpage.com.''
       These last two letters have gone unanswered. The legal 
     analysis has never been provided and the exploitation of 
     innocents continues.
       Human trafficking has rightly been deemed the slavery issue 
     of our time. It isn't simply an international tragedy, it's a 
     national and local outrage. For years, the back of my office 
     door featured a giant picture of William Wilberforce--the 
     remarkable abolitionist, and man of faith, who labored 
     tirelessly for decades to ban the slave trade in the British 
     Empire. Wilberforce was part of a broader transatlantic 
     abolition movement dating back to the 1700s. He served as an 
     inspiration for the abolitionist cause on our own shores, 
     laying the foundation for the likes of Frederick Douglass, 
     Harriet Beecher Stowe and even Abraham Lincoln, who 150 years 
     ago this year issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
       Wilberforce, famously said, ``Having heard all this, you 
     may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say 
     that you do not know.'' We know that our nation's children 
     are at risk of horrific exploitation that almost defies 
     imagination. We know how pimps and johns use specific Web 
     sites to profit from and prey on their vulnerability. Will 
     you continue to look the other way?
       Best wishes.
           Sincerely,
                                                    Frank R. Wolf,
     Member of Congress.
                                  ____

                                                   March 27, 2013.
     Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.,
     Attorney General, Department of Justice,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. Attorney General: As you know I have long been 
     outraged that Web sites like Backpage.com, which in case 
     after case have been found to be a conduit for the buying and 
     selling of human beings, including children, to the tune of 
     millions of dollars in profits a year, appear to do so with 
     impunity from federal prosecutors.
       Just recently, Joshua Jacquis Dumas, plead guilty to 
     ``running a commercial sex business that prostituted multiple 
     juvenile girls in Herndon, Virginia, and other locations 
     throughout Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, 
     Georgia and Florida.'' To his great credit, the office of 
     U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Neil 
     MacBride, brought the case against Dumas. The ``statement of 
     facts'' that Dumas agreed to before entering his guilty plea 
     is a grotesque account of abuse, manipulation and 
     exploitation and much of it took place in and around my 
     congressional district. These crimes were made possible with 
     Backpage.com. The FBI press release announcing the guilty 
     plea specifically mentioned the website: ``Daily, the 
     enterprise posted multiple advertisements on Backpage.com, 
     and sometimes within minutes customers would call.''
       I have repeatedly requested that the Department of Justice 
     provide an analysis of whether there are sufficient laws on 
     the books to prosecute the type of activity that Backpage.com 
     engages in, and, if not, that the department provide a 
     broader legal analysis and recommendations to Congress of 
     legislative initiatives that may be undertaken to fully equip 
     law enforcement to tackle this problem. To date this request 
     has gone unanswered. Meanwhile, as the National Center for 
     Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) pointed out in a 
     recent letter to me, ``children are still being sold for sex 
     on this site [Backpage].''
       I recognize that complex legal questions are involved in 
     this discussion, but surely the safety and security of 
     America's most vulnerable, our children, warrants such a 
     discussion. I have enclosed the letter I received from NCMEC 
     as I believe it provides invaluable information about 
     critical next steps that the department could take to 
     challenge Backpage.com.
       Specifically NCMEC provides four recommendations for 
     practices that Backpage.com and similar Web sites used for 
     trafficking could immediately and voluntarily adopt to reduce 
     the sexual exploitation of children online, including:

[[Page 18334]]

       ``Prohibiting payment sources that mask the customer's 
     identity--such as gift cards, prepaid credit cards and using 
     another's credit card. These payment sources hamper law 
     enforcement's ability to investigate these ads.
       ``Verifying and knowing its customers. Verifying the 
     identity and age of the person submitting the ad as well as 
     the person depicted in any images in the ad. These are ways 
     to verify this information either in person or online when 
     the ad is purchased. Other classified ad sites have 
     implemented verification processes including database checks 
     and review of government issued identification.
       ``Consistently blocking or removing postings believed to 
     involve minors being sold for sex.
       ``Preventing ads with previously flagged images from being 
     posted and refusing to post ads from customers who are 
     believed to have posted suspicious ads in the past.''
       I urge you, as the nation's chief law enforcement 
     authority, to press Backpage.com to immediately adopt these 
     recommendations. And if they fail to voluntarily adopt these 
     recommendations, I implore you to take legal action against 
     Backpage.com.
       Despite mounting public pressure, Backpage.com seems 
     impervious to criticism and even shame. I am increasingly 
     convinced that they will only respond to the very real 
     prospect of criminal or civil liability. Sites like 
     Backpage.com have historically hid behind the Communications 
     Decency Act (CDA) which, as NCMEC points out, ``Provides 
     immunity to Internet communication service providers, such as 
     website operators, for publishing content by third parties.'' 
     But importantly, the CDA does not prevent federal 
     prosecutions of sexual crimes against children.
       On January 10, the Kansas City Star reported that the 
     Eighth Circuit Court of appeals ``decided for the first time 
     that a federal anti-slavery law applies to both the consumers 
     as well as the sellers of sex with children.'' Specifically 
     the court found, ``The unambiguous text . . . makes no 
     distinction between suppliers and purchasers of commercial 
     sex acts with children, and the defendants have failed to 
     persuade us Congress intended a supplier-only limitation or a 
     purchaser exception.''
       The anti-trafficking movement has recognized this as a 
     landmark ruling which closes an important loophole in the 
     fight against trafficking through criminal deterrence, and 
     raises the priority of prosecution of demand. However, this 
     victory will be short-lived if Backpage.com and related 
     online classified sites operate without fear of repercussion, 
     fostering an atmosphere of demand which results in the 
     continued trafficking of women and children for sex.
       This is a grave injustice--a blot on our collective 
     national conscience which demands action. Will you allow this 
     exploitation to continue on your watch?
           Sincerely,
                                                    Frank R. Wolf,
     Member of Congress.

                          ____________________